In a fast paced ever-changing world we are always looking for more efficient and engaging ways to acquire new knowledge, research the latest trend or simply be entertained. For a quick fix people often turn to video. It’s for this reason more and more companies are including video in their content marketing campaigns. The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs 2015 survey found 76% of the most successful organizations produce video and share them on a number of social platforms as one of their tactics to reach their audience.
If this isn’t reason enough to include video in your marketing strategy here are a few stats that might convince you:
• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month to consume video content.
• Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.
• By 2018 video will account for 79% of all consumer Internet traffic.
• Videos grab more attention on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Now that you know why you should include video we want to give you some ideas how to incorporate the tactic into your marketing efforts that will help you find, engage and retain clients.
Consider different types of video content:
Product Demos: Show how your new product or feature works and showcase its benefits.
How-tos: Share a tip, guide or idea that you think will help your audience.
Customer Testimonials: Highlight a satisfied customer.
Corporate Story: Interview your managers and employees to exhibit your culture, team work and accomplishments.
Tour of your Offices or Manufacturing Facility: Include a “tour guide” or a voice-over.
Expert Q & As: Interview a thought leader in your field and share his knowledge.
Keep your audience in mind. Selecting the right topic is vital to the success of your video campaign. Ask yourself the following questions:
Is this something your audience would be interested?
Is it meeting a need of your audience? Is it provocative, informative or humorous? In other words will it grab attention? Is it shareable?
Align your videos with your overall marketing strategy and brand. Your messaging should be consistent throughout all mediums.
Include a call-to-action. How do you want your audience to engage with your content? Do you want them to share it with their friends, create their own video, or fill out a contact form?
Stand out from the crowd. Get your creative juices flowing not only with the video itself but also in the campaign strategy that is fueling it.
Optimize your video for SEO. Include titles, keywords, links, annotations and social share capability.
Determine your distribution plan. YouTube is the place to host your video, after all it is owned by Google, the #1 search engine, but make sure you have a plan to get it out in front of your audience. Embed the video into a page on your website, share it on all your social media outlets, play a loop on a monitor at a trade show or include it in your email marketing.
Repeat what works and tweak what doesn’t. When all is said-and-done review and analyze the metrics. Produce more of the content that your audience engages with and modify the rest.
Savvy marketers are embracing video in their content marketing strategy. Don’t get left behind. Contact Brenner to find out how we can capture your marketing message and reach, engage and retain your clients.
